positive-outcome (publication) bias

Positive-outcome (or "publication") bias is the tendency to publish research with
a positive
outcome more frequently than research with a negative outcome.
Negative outcome refers to finding nothing of statistical significance or
causal consequence, not to finding that something affects us negatively.

Positive-outcome bias also refers to the tendency of the media to
publish medical study stories with positive outcomes much more frequently
than such stories with negative outcomes. Media bias may be due to
scientific journal bias, but the latter seems to be due mainly to
researchers not submitting negative outcome studies for publication (the
file-drawer effect), rather than to bias on
the part of publication or peer review editors.

The drugs don't work: a modern medical scandal by Dr. Ben Goldacre "Seven trials had been conducted comparing reboxetine against a placebo. Only one, conducted in 254 patients, had a neat, positive result, and that one was published in an academic journal, for doctors and researchers to read. But six more trials were conducted, in almost 10 times as many patients. All of them showed that reboxetine was no better than a dummy sugar pill. None of these trials was published."--Ben Goldacre [The Guardian article is an excerpt from Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patientspublished in the UK September 25, 2012; to be published in the U.S. January 8, 2013.]